Rescued raptors will be at Mid-Michigan Community College for a presentation

Isabella County community members have a chance to see hawks, falcons and owls close up Wednesday night.

A Birds of Prey presentation is being put on at the Mid-Michigan Community College Mt. Pleasant campus.

The Wildlife Recovery Association in Shepard specializes in birds, and will be showing off raptors they have rescued, and give a presentation on bird biology.

Ryan Dziedzic is a Biology Instructor at Mid-Michigan Community College.

“Well for a lot of people, these birds of prey are something you may see once in awhile like on a telephone poll, or off in the distance. But to see them 5 ft in front of you and appreciate how large they are, mostly, and some of them are very secretive like the owl — you never see owls they’re all around us. So it’s good to see these things, they do exist.”

Dziedzic said raptors are more important to our ecosystem than people tend to believe.

“They are apart of the ecosystem in which we live, they are top predators, controlling all the things that people don’t find too exciting like mice for example, other rodents. So they are really important in that aspect and you just don’t maybe appreciate that as much unless you’re looking at the real thing.”

The event is free and open to the public. It begins at 5 p.m. at the Mt. Pleasant campus Community Room on Wednesday, November 11.